This invention relates to a beverage carbonating, cooling, and dispensing system.
At present portable drink containers like cooler jugs and insulated barrels are used for cooling and dispensing of non carbonated water and non carbonated beverages. Pumps, push button and lever type outlet taps are used for dispensing. Generally, the cooling of the water or beverage is achieved by adding ice to it.
Soda water, produced by carbonation is easily turned into an effervescing soft drink by adding fruit juices or natural flavours and sweeteners to it either prior to or subsequent to carbonation.
The popularity of carbonated water and carbonated soft drinks has led to a tremendous growth of the soft drink industry.
The vast majority of soft drinks are supplied premixed in containers for home use. Colas and other fruit drink groups are manufactured and shipped to bottling and canning plants where the syrup is diluted with water carbonated and bottled. The quality of water used, control of the ingredients and the product is entirely in the hands of the manufacturer. However, artificial sweeteners, flavours, colours etc. are not favoured by the growing health conscious consumer group.
Beverage dispensing units in commercial establishments use one carbon dioxide gas cylinder to discharge three or four container cylinders. The containers are filled with a carbonated water, drink mixture, like "Cola" or other brand name beverages. The containers are connected with plastic hoses to a gas cylinder equipped with an output pressure regulator and the beverage containers are pressurized at between thirty and seventy pounds p.s.i.
All output hoses lead to a small dispensing cabinet that incorporates a driptray and labeled output taps. The long hoses between containers and output taps make additional cooling necessary. This is achieved by the use of electric compressor cooling units or by leading the hoses through ice trays.
This beverage dispensing set up lacks portability and is mainly used in a stationary setting where the hoses from the gas cylinder to the drink containers and the hoses from the drink containers to the dispensing cabinet can be hidden under desks and table tops.
Previous art indicates that other portable or home units for carbonating beverages are available but these have the disadvantage that the use of small gas supplies in one-shot dispensers, such as bulbs, restricts the volume of liquid that can be carbonated and causes significant costs for the gas which lead to a reduction in the economics. In other cases technically complicated designs and operating steps needed for the production make the devices difficult to operate and unattractive to the consumer.